re: Seafoaming my Johnson - advice?

FWIW petroleum based lubricants will freaking eat holes in outboard covers. Especially the ones made for Johnsons. The holes are small and hard to see but let me tell you the will let all kinds of things through those holes. Failure to use proper water based or silicone based lubricants and the associated cover failure has created thousands of little expensive problems. Most of which you never intended to call your own.